Good morning everyone. It is a great pleasure for me to welcome Mark Rutte, my friend Mark Rutte, to Palazzo Chigi today, in his new role as NATO Secretary General. I would like to take this opportunity to wish him all the best in this extremely important position at such a complex moment in time. My best wishes of course also convey the congratulations of the Italian Government. It is a position of immense responsibility, as I was saying, at a time like this when everything is being called into question by the wound inflicted on the international rules-based system by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which as we are seeing is having destabilising effects far beyond the borders within which it is unfolding, with the domino effect of contributing to ignite new crisis hotbeds.

This situation of instability has opened many new fronts, requiring all of us to be able to modulate our action in a different way.
I wish to thank Mark for choosing to come to Rome, after London, Tallinn and Berlin, as one of his very first visits to allied capitals since taking office as Secretary General on 1 October this year.
Moreover, this is his second visit to Italy in a very short amount of time, as he also participated, as you know, in the G7 ministerial meeting on defence, which was one of a kind. This was the first time ever that a G7 Presidency decided to organise a ministerial meeting on defence, but in our view, at this moment in time, it was very important for our defence ministers to also have the opportunity to meet.

Today’s meeting clearly provided an opportunity for us to reaffirm Italy’s key role within the Atlantic Alliance. We are a leader in NATO in terms of the quality and quantity of our actions, and in particular we are the main contributor to the Atlantic Alliance’s operations and missions in absolute terms, and therefore also to NATO’s budget.

The role played by our actions can also be seen through our presence along the Alliance’s eastern flank, in Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Hungary, as well as with our naval resources in the Mediterranean and the missions in Iraq and in Kosovo, where we took over command of the KFOR mission again a few days ago, demonstrating our long-standing commitment in the Balkans region, which is and remains crucial for Italy. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank our men and women, our armed forces who are serving in these missions and operations, for the credibility they give to our nation and for the credibility they help to create for the Alliance.

Our meeting also focused on allied support for Ukraine’s legitimate defence and the coordination role that NATO can and must play in this regard.
Our common goal remains the same: to create the best possible conditions for a just peace, to help Ukraine look ahead.
From this point of view, Italy has always done its part: we have reached the ninth package of military aid, as always focusing in particular on air defence systems, which above all means defending the civilian population, and that is not counting the comprehensive support Italy is also continuing to provide, from humanitarian aid through to reconstruction efforts.
In 2025, we will be hosting the Ukraine Recovery Conference here in Rome, and the Italian Government is already working on this important event, as indeed is the whole of Italy’s economic system. We are of course also continuing to work to ensure implementation of the agreement regarding use of the interest generated by immobilised Russian assets, which was one of the major achievements of the G7 Leaders’ Summit under the Italian G7 Presidency.

We discussed how to strengthen the Alliance as a whole. As you know, we have always supported the need for a solid European pillar to stand alongside NATO’s North American pillar. We share this vision with the new Secretary General and we agree on the fact that it is crucial for us all to work on an innovative and competitive European defence industry able to build on the complementarity between NATO and the European Union.

We also agreed with Secretary General Rutte that it is fundamental to guarantee international cooperation in this regard, both in Europe and with our North American allies.
I know Mark will be meeting with representatives of the Italian defence industry later today. I would like to point out that the Italian defence industry is world-renowned for its excellence in this field. We are therefore ready to do our part also in this regard.

The Secretary General and I are also in agreement regarding the fact that the Alliance must pay increasing attention to its southern flank. Over the last two years, Italy has contributed to this work to focus on the Alliances’ southern flank, which also led to a specific section being included in the Conclusions at the last NATO Summit that talked precisely about a renewed commitment, with instruments to be put in place in order to strengthen our focus on the southern flank. It is clearly very important for us that this set of initiatives is implemented and Mark is fully on board with this, as he has always been very attuned also to this dynamic.

We all know that NATO needs to be increasingly able to evolve in order to meet the demands of times that are changing around us. There are new challenges that are inevitably linked to the concepts of defence and security, from the development of artificial intelligence through to warfare domains becoming increasingly hybrid. The Alliance’s capabilities therefore need to be interconnected, and that interconnection is fundamental, as is its ability to constantly question itself.
There is obviously much to be done, and I shall close by saying that Italy will do its part, as it has until now, to remain united in defending the values that have been guiding the Alliance for the last 75 years and that, over that time, have guaranteed peace and security for our peoples.
So, my sincere thanks, Mark, for being here. All the best once again, and you can always count on Italy’s support.

[Courtesy translation]